Pamela Anderson reveals childhood sexual abuse, launches charity

Pamela Anderson reveals she was abused

The "Baywatch" star turned animal and environmental activist says she was sexually abused as a child and as a teen. Pamela Anderson made the revelations at a Cannes Film Festival event, where she launched her namesake foundation.

The "Baywatch" star turned animal and environmental activist says she was sexually abused as a child and as a teen. Pamela Anderson made the revelations at a Cannes Film Festival event, where she launched her namesake foundation.

Pamela Anderson has revealed a history of sexual assault, ticking off instances of molestation, rape and gang rape. Her revelations occurred at a charity event held on a luxury yacht at the Cannes Film Festival.

The "Baywatch" star and activist, 46, chose the occasion, which she co-hosted with Vivienne Westwood, to launch the Pamela Anderson Foundation, dedicated to "human, animal and environmental rights."

She also chose it as an opportunity to share "events that in surviving drove me to this point, right now."

Before an audience assembled late Friday night, the 13-time Playboy model took "the risk of over exposing myself, again, possibly being inappropriate, again." (She posted the text of her speech on her blog the same day, and later on Facebook.)

"I did not have an easy childhood," Anderson said. "Despite loving parents, I was molested from age 6 to 10 by my female babysitter."

The mother of two boys noted that her father was an alcoholic and her mother worked two jobs, but said they had tried to keep her safe.

"I went to a friend's boyfriend's house," she continued. "While she was busy, the boyfriend's older brother decided he would teach me backgammon, which led into a back massage, which led into rape -- my first heterosexual experience. He was 25 years old, I was 12."

Coincidentally, the Cannes event -- which raised money for Cool Earth, a group that works with indigenous villages to stop rain forest destruction -- was a backgammon tournament.

"My first boyfriend in grade 9 decided it would be funny to gang rape me, with six of his friends. Needless to say, I had a hard time trusting humans. I just wanted off this Earth."

Anderson said she couldn't tell her mother, whom she saw as already carrying too heavy of a burden, but instead turned toward animals and nature.

She said that until she had children, animals became her only friends, and that she'd "vowed to protect them and only them."

"Sometimes when you smile, it's not because you're happy," the Canadian native quoted her mother as saying. "It's because you're strong."

From that childhood, Anderson would go on to grace the cover of Playboy magazine for the first time when she was 22. She gained mainstream fame a couple of years later via "Home Improvement" and "Baywatch," then found her "overexposure" upped in 1995 when a sex tape she made with first husband Tommy Lee of Motley Crue went public.